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Welcome to DesignSherpa, a revolutionary internet marketing service for the home design and remodeling industry from Network Communications, Inc., the parent company of the country’s largest group of regional home design media brands including New England Home, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, At Home in Arkansas, Seattle Homes & Lifestyles, Kansas City Home & Garden, Mountain Living, St. Louis Homes & Lifestyles, Colorado Homes & Lifestyles and more.

DesignSherpa provides a turn key solution to building and managing a social media marketing program for design professionals, retailers, showrooms, and luxury home service providers.  DesignSherpa takes the risk and complexity out of social media marketing, creating a new kind of Internet Marketing presence for your home design business. We will improve your visibility on Google, increase your web traffic, enhance your connection with consumers and other design professionals, and turbo-charge your referral network.

The explosion of social media tools and networks, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, create a unique opportunity for design professionals, retailers, showrooms, and other luxury home design businesses to get active on the web, by providing interesting content relevant to consumers and the  trade who are seeking ideas or resources while they plan enhanced residential living environments.  Social media tools help you get involved in the process that starts with inspiration and culminates in selecting  products and resources, creating an active and engaged online community around your business when your prospects are most active.

Network Communications and its home design media brands recognize the incredible potential of social media marketing to improve your bottom line.  We also understand the time and technology challenges that social media marketing presents to busy design professionals.

DesignSherpa is a monthly subscription service that provides a customized turn-key solution to create active, engaged and effective virtual networks of prospects and influential members of the trade in your market..

Our numerous luxury home magazine professionals from Atlanta to Seattle bring their unique skills in content creation and management, as well as knowledge of social media networks to the implementation of DesignSherpa.

Our teams are all social-media certified. Every member has gone through a detailed month-long training program with Domus Consulting to educate them about the power of social media networks and to give them insight and experience in developing effective and influential networks.  Our teams submitted themselves to several additional months of training in creating and sharing content that drives engagement around their magazine brands and market activity and growth in their own social networks.  They can now share their experiences and help you start to harness the power of social media with benefits best appreciated by getting active with a well thought out complete social media strategy and system.

To learn more about this powerful service, please visit the following links:

About DesignSherpa

About Home Design and Network Communications, Inc .

Case Study Featured

In a recent post at Dan McCarthy’s Viralhousingfix blog there was an interesting ground level story about a local cycling/spin studio operator’s view on his own experiences with social media as a tool for expanding his business.  I happen to know the operator, and he is a practical smart thinker that never overstates matters or sugar coats his experiences.

The operator, Bill Pryor of Spynergy Cycling Studio (full disclosure: Bill is an old media hand and good friend, and we have used his expertise to help us develop our DigitalSherpa social media services) had this to say about social media as tool for a small businesses like his:

First, all this is still exploratory and the best practices are far from well defined —– but it doesn’t take much time (or money) to explore and there is more than enough anecdotal stuff happening to make me feel it is worth it. Second not ALL my customers are into this stuff……not even MOST of my customers and prospects are into it. But a small, passionate and fast growing group ARE into this. And those people are disproportionately important because they are those key “connectors” or “engagers” or whatever it was that Malcom Gladwell called them in Tipping Point. The ones who ARE into social media often can turn into obsessive evangelists for your business. Evangelists armed with amazing networking tools.

Check out the post at Viralhousingfix.com to see some examples of how some of Bill’s social media savvy customers have helped him promote his local fitness business.  Also, read this post on local businesses and social media .  If you are interested in checking in on Bill’s blogging approach for Spynergy, find it here at spynergy.squarespace.com/blog .  It is just another example of how social media can be an inexpensive but powerful boost for small businesses.

Accessories How To Windows fabric interior design

You don’t have to spend bookoos of dollars on window treatment design to get the point across. I give points for creativity! Expect that having a window treatment designed, installed along with the fabric selection, can run anywhere from $700-$1500 or more per average size window. Sometimes that kind of spending doesn’t exist when you just completed a full room makeover. I know that the thought of “improvising” for a window after you just invested so much time, effort and expense on the rest of the room may seem disheartening, but if you think creatively I am sure that you can come up with something that will suffice until the bank account is replenished.

Here are some instant tips to quickly improve the look of your windows:

Toss it on! Take an old vintage bedspread or a tablecloth and drape it over a store bought drapery rod for a draped one-sided panel effect. Then pin it back about half way down from the sash line. Maybe embellish a “window waistline” with a ribbon or tie and bravo! You just created a window treatment!

Think Linen! Grab a handful of your grandmothers tea napkins that you will never think to pull out, iron and use. And GIVE THEM A PURPOSE other than sitting in a drawer in the buffet. If you are hesitant to stitch them together, just use tiny little safety pins. Turn them on their side and fold down the center point to make a triangle, tack a row of them together and you have created an instant kitchen valance! (OR if you really get going and have several patterns and colors, it would make a great bed skirt on a little girl’s bed!)

Customize Store Bought…just for you! Window treatments don’t have to look store bought. Take a plain panel that you picked up at a department store and dress it up! Stop into a fabric store and find a tassel trim (often I find that onion tassel looks the best for any decor). Grab a sewing machine or hand stitch a full row on the leading edge of the panel facing the inside area of the window. An inexpensive embellishment that really makes your window looks custom!

Key tips that I always follow – why bother if it doesn’t add either drama, elegance, purpose, or beauty? Make sure that it is worth your time; use lots of beefy fabric, gather, gather, gather! Don’t forget the steamer! There is nothing worse than a large wrinkled- unfinished window treatment. You may as well have done nothing at all!

What are some of the do-it-yourself projects you’ve done to add a personal touch to your home?

Environment Lighting Space Windows ambiance fabric interior design

I think most people see windows and natural day lighting as a big plus to a space. But if you do not take the time to dress that investment you are missing out of what the space can stand for. In addition, adding a great window treatment provides many positive attributes including (but not limited to):

Beauty and Depth

• No matter how drama or simplicity you want your treatments to bring into your space, it is important to think about their aesthetic impact on the space. A simple straight sheer treatment has a very different impact than a heavy sweeping velvet curtain – but each serves a fitting aesthetic purpose and send a visual message about the space. I like to think of window treatments as the frosting on the cake – you need the frosting, but what do you want to say about the cake through this outer layer? It’s a question of form vs. function – but why not both?

Controlled Light Pollution

• The amount of “light trespass” your home and/or office releases has a direct impact of night sky visibility – this is a growing concern in the eco-driven design community. Lack of night sky visibility, especially in urban settings, can cause a disconnect from humans to the capacity of the Earth at large – not to mention it is just a waste of energy!

Controlled Natural Daylight

• Opposite of the above bullet point – this can be achieved through blinds, drapes, sheers, layered curtains. By controlling the amount of light coming into the space, you can compete with glare – other than that, I am not sure why you would want to block it out!

Privacy

• We all have seen into a house or apartment when it’s dark outside and light inside – it can be like living in a fishbowl! By adding privacy, you do not have to think of this as blocking your view. Think about “half window treatments,” where half of the window vertically remains uncovered so just the lower half is private from view. You can also purchase reverse opening blinds so they can open from the top or the bottom! This can be compared to the purposes of tapestries in castles – they can balance heat and conserve overall heat production, plus look great at the same time.

So what is your window treatment reasoning? What purpose do they serve for you in your space?